68 NATURAL HISTORY. 



by the nature of the earth, or by the situation of woods 

 and hills, the air is more unequal than in others ; and 

 inequality of air is ever an enemy to .health ; it were 

 good to take two weather-glasses, matches in all things, 

 and to set them, for the same hours of one day, in sev 

 eral places, where no shade is, nor inclosures ; and to 

 mark when you set them, how far the water cometh ; 

 and to compare them, when you come again, how the 

 water standeth then ; and if you find them unequal, 

 you may be sure that the place where the water is 

 lowest is in the warmer air, and the other in the 

 colder. And the greater the inequality be of the 

 ascent or descent of the water, the greater is the 

 inequality of the temper of the air. 



812. The predictions likewise of cold and long win 

 ters, and hot and dry summers, are good to be known ; 

 as well for the discovery of the causes, as for divers 

 provisions. That of plenty of haws, and heps, and 

 briar-berries, hath been spoken of before. If wainscot, 

 or stone, that have used to sweat, be more dry in the 

 beginning of winter ; or the drops of the eaves of 

 houses come more slowly down than they use ; it por- 

 tendeth a hard and frosty winter. The cause is, for 

 that it sheweth an inclination of the air to dry weather ; 

 which in winter is ever joined with frost. 



813. Generally a moist and a cool summer portend- 

 eth a hard winter. The cause is, for that the vapours 

 of the earth are not dissipated in the summer by the 

 sun ; and so they rebound upon the winter. 



814. A hot and dry summer and autumn, and es 

 pecially if the heat and drought extend far into Sep 

 tember, portendeth an open beginning of winter; and 

 colds to succeed, toward the latter part of the winter 



